The present invention relates to apparatus for forming a helical spring from a length of spring wire and, more particularly, to a simple bench-mountable device, preferably hand-operated, for custom making small quantities of springs.
While spring manufacturing devices are known in the art, they are generally quite complicated and expensive and are typically designed for mass-producing large quantities of springs. There has not heretofore been available a simple and inexpensive tool to allow an artisan or craftsman to manufacture small quantities of helical springs as needed, while at the same time affording the flexibility of making a wide variety of helical springs of different coil diameters, including right-hand and left-hand, tension and compression, closed end and open end springs, all from wire of different diameters, material and resilient characteristics.
Prior devices have either been too cumbersome or too expensive for small scale use or have not afforded the desired flexibility.